Once again, it’s Saturday, which means another week has gone by. This week, was the last week of the first “trimester” which means next week there will be new classes, of which I will be teaching one, but more on that later.
This week, I continued with my other duties as a technician and worked on the lighting design. After troubleshooting, and figuring out more of the intricacies of of the theater, I was able to begin converting the hand-drawn plot onto an Excel Spreadsheet so that it would be easier to be understood and then hung. In the process, I was forced to do some research on instruments, to figure out the exact data I needed for weights, and positioning, etc. During this week I also was able to find time and select gels for the show, opting for some nice warms and pale blues to really focus on the tropical aspect of the show. One of the things that was really expected of me was to bring a fresh look at lighting design at Culver shows and to showcase a change in the way things are normally done. As of right now, I’m confident in how it will look, but it’s a bit harder to envision how it will look without software like Vectorworks to actually simulate the beams and the focus areas. I hope that the plotted positions will work out for the design, as I hope to not repeat last year with multiple switches and moves as I did for my design of Intimate Apparel. I’m excited to start hanging the lights and focusing them next week that way, one aspect of the show can be finished.
The other part of tech that I’m finally exploring, after years of avoiding it, is stage management. For the longest time in high school, I wanted to be a stage manager. I wanted to call cues, and be the person in charge of all the tech, to take on all the responsibility of managing a show. However, I took an amazing class on stage management at Oxy, and I quickly found out that, stage management was most definitely not my thing. There was way more organization and paperwork that didn’t seem that appealing. Calling cues was only the final part of the puzzle, but there was so much more paperwork that I didn’t find as fun. I realized that being a technician or a designer would be way more hands on than being a stage manager. Well, here at Culver, one of the other hats I’m wearing for the show, will be calling cues and managing. So this last week, I began working directly with the student actors and actresses, helping them, taking notes on their blocking, relaying messages from the director. I’ve had much experience working with amazing stage managers at Oxy and I’ve learned so much by just observing them, but to finally step into their shoes was quite different. Hopefully, it turns out alright, and maybe my perspective will change about stage managing.
So next week, I will finally be teaching! I was super excited to find out that I was going to be teaching an Upper Camp Theater Tech Class, and working with Major Coven, who is the theater technical director/instructor for the school year, we had come up with a great lesson plan for the two weeks. I couldn’t wait to actually work with students who were potentially excited to learn about tech. Unfortunately, my dreams were a little stifled when I found out that for the next two weeks, my class will consist of two students. I remember when I first found out, my jaw dropped as I was like: “what”? As I slowly got used to it, I realize that it doesn’t matter how many students I teach, as long as I properly and effectively relay the mechanics of tech theater, of how much fun it can be, and how easy it is to become involved in it, that my job will be done. The experience I get from teaching fifteen students or two students, shouldn’t really make a difference, as long as the students learn something. So, hopefully, that will be fun! Next week is going to be busy with teaching and teching, and I hope its going to be great!
Yeh Heard It Here 